Have you hugged your dishwasher today?

Probably the hardest thing about the kitchen remodel has been the lack of the dishwasher. I guess I miss the oven a little bit, but I can buy cookies at the store. Do you have any idea how hard it is on your back to wash dishes in the bathtub?

But today, James got the dishwasher AND the faucet hooked up! Good for our marriage, for sure...

Much better!

More malfeasance

This defies comment.

Maybe they were high on sealant fumes.

They will come back and fix it.

Our countertops are HOT!

That backsplash ain't bad either. Yeah, those diamonds are the same as the countertop granite.




ALL the cabinets are in. Not necissarily all the doors, but I'll take it.



James says he can have our dishwasher back in place and hooked up by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday). THAT would be exquisite.

Malfeasance

Today the tile installers told Nathan at noon that they didn't have the tile we wanted for the backsplash in stock so we'd have to chose something different BY THREE P.M. if we wanted the install to go ahead tomorrow. Nice. Reeeall nice. So I drove to SAN LEANDRO (near Oakland!) at lunch time to pick out something new. When I asked them how much of a discount they would give us for this inconvenience, there was some uncomfortable silence and diverting of gazes.

But the good news is that the cabinets are installed and ready for Black Galaxy to be installed on themm tomorrow! Woo! Drawers!

Our first cabinet!

Our very first cabinet, the corner high cabinet, is hung! It's a beaut! The lazy susan below is fitting into place nicely. And next to that, DRAWERS!!!!!



In other news, I finally got sick of eggs in the microwave, and I busted out the camp stove and some of the propane Linda had to unload when she moved. Yum, scrambled eggs with cheese. The boys were pleased. Oh, the thermometer said it was 40 degrees when I was in the back yard cooking the eggs.

Good thing we like our microwave

Remember how I said we weren't going to eat out every day during the kitchen remodel? Um, yeah.

But it's been two-and-a-half-weeks now, and leftovers are getting old, literally and figuratively. I have a list, and today or tomorrow I'm going to the store to buy actual food for an actual recipe: pork and vegetable stew, in the slow-cooker. I'm making it Wednesday, partly because there were still some spots on the sign-up sheet for bringing meals to one of our preschool moms who just had a baby. I guess that was the kick in the pants I needed...

Not much visible progress on the kitchen in the last week or so, but James has been here every day spackling or priming or something. He just put a coat of paint on the ceiling, so that's done. The floor is done, too. He says he's going to move all the cabinets into the kitchen today, and get started on installation. He has to finish the cabinets by Thursday, because that's when the countertop installation starts.

Floor tiles are in! Tomorrow there will be grouting. Some other miscellaneous work Thursday and Friday, then James is supposed to install the cabinets on Monday!

It would have been nice, though, if the floor tilers had told us that we wouldn't be able to walk over the tiles to get to our laundry room for a day before they laid that tile. Oh well.

Rock and roll!

James and his crew have been "rocking," aka putting up sheet rock. There is still "taping" and "mudding" to be done in advance of the tile installers coming tomorrow.